“Network North”

So HS2 north of Birmingham is scrapped and ‘the North’ is set for a £36bn package of transport improvements.

I bet you can’t guess how many of the proposed schemes directly benefit Barnsley. In fact, have a look through the proposals and I challenge you to find Barnsley being mentioned at all.

Meanwhile, Rotherham gets a brand new Rail Station on an upgraded line.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/network-north

 

Does Pontefract get owt?

 

Most of what could be done should be paid for by the TOC's anyway.

1) Cross Country trains, which are always crowded should all have a minimum of 8 carriages.
2) Northern and TPE should employ the required amount of staff to provide a service without relying on overtime.
3) Fast trains to Manchester From Sheffield needs to be introduced (50 minutes is not fast)
4) Better services around Barnsley - especially the morning peak
5) The removal of the crap trains with the 3 seats at one end / single seats at the other with doors in obscure places.

And none TOC based ...
1) And a better link to Manchester with Woodhead opening for rail traffic.
2) Freight moved from motorway to rail
3) Improves National services (particular London to Sheffield) through the night. I am sure there is a need to run them every couple of hours where possible)
4) Better late night and Sunday morning services

 

Oh, and new companies like Lumo, trying to cream the profit off a service they didn't bid for (or lost the bid) when the winning contractor did all their maths on exclusivity, told to fk off.

 

Barnsley isn’t directly mentioned but it does sit on the Sheffield to Leeds line that it reckons will be upgraded and electrified and will increase the number of fast trains from 1 an hour to 3-4.

 

Well, according to the video Sunak recorded in Downing Street last week, they are going to increase the number of trains between Leeds and Sheffield by 4 times. There are already 5 each way per hour, so it'll be one each way every 3 minutes...

And yes, those will go through that tunnel just outside Sheffield station.

And they are reopening the Don Valley Line to Stocksbridge, so they need to reopen Victoria station and do something with the hotel on the site....

Oh yeah, and electrifying the Edale Line - so that will need a bigger tunnel to fit the electric wires and trains in...

 

That could be via Rotherham though.

The current (proper) fast train is the Cross Country one. Whilst I'd like to see more, I can't see us been electrified or that stopping here.

 

The *fast* Sheffield to Leeds train is the CrossCountry service that only stops at Wakefield. It also costs over twice that of the Northern service that takes 10 minutes more...

 

Ah, didn’t realise that!

 

Pie in the sky. HS2 (north) cancelled and this lot will be out before any contracts are signed for this replacement.

Ergo it all changes before an ounce of infrastructure is in place

 

That does my head in. There's also an annoying bottleneck at the other side.

There was talk of them moving the tram to the other side of the bus station, that would be a big piece of work, whether they could fit additional platforms, I'm not sure.

 

I did read recently that Rotherham is the largest town in the UK without a direct service to London. Although Middlesbrough and Huddersfield might rival it - not sure which is biggest. Barnsley would also be on that list but a little lower down.

 

I did think it'd probably be cheaper to extend the tram to Stocksbridge instead of reopening the train line/station for the same end result.

 

I wish when they'd built Meadowhall station, they'd put in a junction to join the Barnsley line with the Rotherham line, so Meadowhall had 6 platforms and we had a direct service from Barnsley to Rotherham to Doncaster via Meadowhall (could start and end it at Leeds for a full loop). That would have been more useful that anything else they are proposing.

 

They should never have shut Masbrough and altered the junction so you couldn't get from tracks 1 to 4 and vice versa.

 

Would be easily done putting a bridge in next to the gasometer.

 

100%

 

That’s the other route via Moorthorpe. Obviously they only need to electrify up to where it meets the ECML near Fitzwilliam and that should’ve been done regardless. There’s no mention whatsoever of the Hallam Line being electrified.

The supposed Rotherham station is meant to be going near where the old B&Q at Parkgate is.

They should at least commit to electrifying the Hallam Line, but we’ll end up with nothing as usual. The realty being that the old North Midland Route via Cudworth would’ve been a much faster and better option for Sheff - Leeds but they obviously don’t want to admit that.

 

It's a shame the existing bridge faces the wrong way.

 

Is that the one that went over the bridge at Darfield...?